“The next day is the festival,” Pence added, turning back to Roxas and Olette.
“The last day of summer!” Olette said cheerfully.
“Don’t remind me! It’s already making me sick!” Hayner dramatically rubbed his gut.
“From what I’ve seen, the culprit for that would be all the ice cream,” Pence teased.
Behind him, Roxas was watching his friends. Two more days of summer vacation. Only two days left for them to be together.
Still, they had those two whole days…
“You were never supposed to exist.”
That’s what Naminé had said to him.
He wasn’t supposed to exist? He was Axel’s best friend?
My best friends are Hayner, Pence, and Olette, right?
The clock tower bells rang in their enormous clamor. He could hear a train whistle in the distance. Hayner and the others were chatting and laughing.
And yet…it all felt like something happening far away. Roxas gazed at the low sun, still too bright, and tears sprang to his eyes.
Two days left of summer vacation.
—Restoration at 98%—
CHAPTER 6
THE 6th DAY
THE CITY WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS. The glow of the neon signs here and there, in their attempt to alleviate the gloom, made the darkness only deeper. In the dimness, blacker shadows crawled, wriggling up from the ground and taking shape as Heartless.
They had me surrounded. I held a weapon in each hand—two Keyblades.
As I cut down the Heartless, the thrill of the fight surged through me. I looked up at the dark sky.
There was a boy standing up there on a rooftop, with silver hair and a blindfold covering his eyes. He appeared to be about the same age as me, but I couldn’t be sure. Like me, he wore a black cloak—however, it was clear he wasn’t one of us.
I hurled a Keyblade at him. But he caught it and jumped down the building, toward me. I jumped up to head him off, and in the instant we passed in front of a neon sign, I was sure he could see the face hidden under my hood.
We both kicked off from the building and landed on the ground at nearly the same time. In the next moment, all the Heartless nearby scattered, and we leaped back to make some distance between us. He held my Keyblade as if it were perfectly natural. Apparently, he could handle a weapon that shouldn’t even have stayed in his hand.
He rushed at me with the Keyblade.
The clang of metal on metal sounded, and sparks flew.
We were matched for strength—well, maybe I was a little stronger. Maybe.
With another flurry of sparks, he fell.
“Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?!” he cried.
That was exactly what I wanted to know.
Why was I born? Why am I here? Why am I fighting you? And how can you use a Keyblade, too?
“Shut up!” I shouted…and brought the Keyblade down to finish him.
Roxas heaved himself up in his bed. That dream hadn’t been like the others.
It wasn’t Sora and the others…it was me. I was in the dream myself.
He climbed out of bed and looked back at the window in time to see a pigeon flap its wings and fly away.
Wondering about the dream, he got dressed and headed out.
Today was the day of the investigation. Maybe then we’ll understand what’s behind all these weird things happening to me.
He checked the clock—it was already past the time he was supposed to meet them. He hopped onto his skateboard and sped over to the hangout.
Once he arrived, he leaned the skateboard against the wall outside, then took a deep breath and went in. The other three were already there, discussing something.
“Man, I could not sleep last night…” Scratching his head, Roxas walked over to join his friends. “Guys…?”
He reached out to tap Hayner’s shoulder—and his hand passed right through.
The three of them seemed to be involved in an animated conversation. But even though they moved and acted like they were talking, he couldn’t hear their voices.
They saw something and burst out laughing—completely silent.
And then they slipped past him, out of their usual spots.
“What…?” Roxas mumbled.
There was a single photograph resting on the unused water tank they’d been clustered around. It was the picture from in front of the haunted mansion, with Hayner, Pence, Olette—and no Roxas.
He ran outside after them. The low rays of sun streaking into the alley were as dazzling as usual.
But…there were no other people out.
He was about to head for Market Street, when he felt a presence from behind him.
A dark shape appeared, and then someone stepped out from it—Axel.
“Look at what it’s come to,” Axel said. “I’ve been given some pretty nasty orders…to destroy you if you refuse to come back with me.”
Roxas stared hard at him. What was it Naminé had said…? “We’re…best friends, right?”
That was what she’d told him. Roxas didn’t have any memories like that himself. But…we were friends.
“Well, sure, but I’m not getting turned into a Dusk for— Hey, wait, you remember now?!”
“Um, yeah…,” Roxas faltered. It wasn’t really true. He didn’t remember it. Any of it.
“Great!”
Axel looked genuinely happy, very much so. Roxas’s chest tightened just a little. But he couldn’t let himself worry about that. Axel had just said he was going to destroy Roxas. If he found out that Roxas really didn’t remember…he probably would go ahead and do it.
“But, you know, I gotta make sure,” Axel went on, his expression still bright. “So, let’s see… What’s our boss’s name?”
Seizing the chance while Axel’s guard was down, Roxas picked up a stick from the ground.
“Roxas?” Axel said, anxious now.
Roxas settled into a fighting stance, holding the stick like a sword.
“C’mon, I can’t believe this…,” Axel muttered.
The stick in Roxas’s hand transformed into the Keyblade. “Axel…”
But when Roxas called his name, Axel readied his chakrams. And then—he stopped moving.
He was paused, just like before, when Naminé had helped him in the sandlot.
A deep voice spoke from somewhere.
“Roxas. To the mansion. The time has come…”
The mansion? Time for what?
Never mind that… I want to see my friends.
“Hayner…,” Roxas called. “Pence…”
But there was no reply.
“Olette…!”
The town was silent. He couldn’t hear a sound. In front of him, frozen in time, was his “best friend” Axel.
But Axel was never my best friend. He couldn’t have been, or I would remember him.
My friends are the ones who live here, Hayner and Pence and Olette…
He shouted their names again. “Hayner! Pence! Olette!”
His voice echoed in the empty Twilight Town.
“We have intruders,” DiZ said.
He stood up and peered at the screen, which showed a map of Twilight Town with glowing dots representing the intruders. And the dots were multiplying.
“That’s no good,” he muttered, gripping a sword that looked like a demon’s wing.
“What happened to Naminé?” asked DiZ, just as he was heading out.
“She’s in her room as usual.”
“…And? What about disposing of her?”
He could feel the weight of DiZ’s stare on his back. But he didn’t turn around to reply. “It can still be done. Even after Sora wakes up.”
“It is already time. Roxas will be here at the mansion any moment. I don’t know what you’re scheming… But everything is proceeding in line with my theories.”
At that, he finally looked at DiZ. “Your objective isn’t the same as mine. I hope you don’t forget that.”
> A faint smile came to DiZ’s face—or maybe he only imagined it.
“When Sora wakes up…this alliance between us is over. Right?”
DiZ glared at him wordlessly, never taking his eyes off his unhidden face. With a faint smile, he left the room.
Time began to move again. Axel heaved an enormous sigh.
Apparently, they were still better at playing the situation.
“So the Roxas I know is long gone,” Axel mumbled as if to confirm it to himself. “Fine, I see how it is…”
He glowered at the setting sun. Was Roxas really gone?
What could Axel do to find him again?
Soon…Sora would wake up.
How could he separate Sora and Roxas?
“This is bad…” Axel frowned. A dark space yawned behind him, and he vanished into it.
Roxas dashed away to the haunted mansion. Here and there in town those silver creatures, the Dusks, were appearing. Why…? What was happening to Twilight Town?
“Hayner…Pence…Olette…”
Mumbling their names under his breath like a magic spell, he slashed the Keyblade at any Dusks who crossed his path. If he made it through the wall and into the forest, he’d reach the haunted mansion, and there he should be able to find out something.
“Hayner…”
He was always doing ridiculous things with Roxas. They’d fought together in the Struggle, and sometimes they actually quarreled, but they would always make up soon enough.
“Pence…”
Their chowhound friend was kind and thoughtful. He was good with computers, too, always keeping up with what was happening around town and sharing the news.
“Olette…”
She was always smiling. Honest and conscientious, the one who kept the rest of them in line.
He would never believe that those three weren’t his friends. He couldn’t believe it.
And not just them, but Seifer and his gang, too, and everyone in town. All of them—all of them were his friends. He wouldn’t think otherwise.
He’d made it through the forest. “Why…?” he murmured as he gazed up at the haunted mansion.
The gate was shut as tight as ever, with its giant lock.
“Don’t call me here and then lock me out…”
Behind him Dusks were crowding and jostling, trying to get at him.
Suddenly a memory from those dreams came into his head.
A huge keyhole…and in his hand, the Keyblade.
How had Sora opened these things in the dreams?
Roxas stepped back a bit from the gate and held up the Keyblade, pointing it at the lock. A beam of light shot from the Keyblade—and the gate opened.
“There.” Roxas didn’t look back once before charging into the mansion.
As the silver things moved to follow Roxas, a man in a black cloak blocked their way.
The gate drew slowly shut at his back, and the Dusks surrounded him. The weapon he held was a sword like a demon’s wing—Soul Eater. “Come and get it,” he taunted the things.
All at once, they rushed him.
The interior of the mansion was dusty and dim. But why did Roxas feel like he knew this place? Up on the second story, down the hall, there should be…
He rushed through the foyer and up the stairs, taking them two at a stride. The Dusks were still coming after him, but they seemed weak now. When he thought back to the first time he’d fought one of them, he could hardly believe these were the same creatures. The Keyblade felt light in his hand, too.
He couldn’t have said whether the difference was in himself or the things around him.
He opened the door at the end of the second-story hall.
“This is…”
Somehow, he’d known what he would find—the white room where he’d talked to Naminé the day before. Drawings covered the walls. Roxas examined them one by one, with the attention he hadn’t had the chance to give them yesterday.
Naminé had called herself a witch who could control people’s memories.
These drawings pinned to the walls were sketches she’d made of someone’s memories—of Sora’s and his own.
He paused in front of a certain drawing. Someone dressed in black was running through a dark building.
That’s…me.
The moment he realized that, pain shot through his skull.
And his mind went back in time.
I was walking in a dark city lit only by neon signs—the same as the dream I had this morning.
Axel stood there like he’d been waiting for me. I felt my resolve waver when I saw him, but I kept walking.
“Your mind’s made up?” he said when I’d passed him by.
I turned back to him. “Why did the Keyblade choose me? I have to know.”
There had always been these inexplicable memories in my heart. Things I’d never seen, people I’d never met.
Why was it that I could wield the Keyblade? Why was I separated from Sora? Why did I come into being at all?
I wanted to know.
“You can’t turn on the organization!” Axel cried.
He remembered—I was in the organization.
Roxas rubbed at his throbbing temples and turned around. Naminé was there, quiet.
“Organization XIII… They’re a bad bunch,” he said, as if to tell himself.
Naminé shook her head and looked at the floor as she spoke. “Bad or good—I don’t know. They’re a group of incomplete people who want to be whole. And to that end, they’re searching desperately for something.”
“What?” Roxas asked.
She raised her eyes to him and took a tiny breath. “Kingdom Hearts.”
“…Kingdom…Hearts?” He couldn’t stifle a smile as he repeated the words.
“Funny?” Naminé questioned his reaction.
“No, it’s just…” Roxas took a step toward her, shaking his head. “I think I’ve been running away from the question I really wanna ask. What’s going to happen to me? Just tell me that. Nothing else really matters anymore.”
He just wanted to know. What’s going to happen to me? Why did all this happen?
Hayner, Pence, Olette. Sora, Donald, Goofy…and Naminé, and Axel, the man in black.
People he knew, and people he didn’t. But maybe he did know the people he didn’t know. Maybe he didn’t know the people he did know.
He wasn’t even sure which was which anymore.
“You are…,” Naminé began—but then she flickered and vanished, like some kind of mirage.
“Naminé?”
Roxas dashed to the space where she’d been standing, and a man appeared there in a flash of light.
The man in red. The one who appeared when Axel was talking to me, the day of the Struggle…
The Dusks appeared as quickly as they were defeated, but he kept on cutting down the silver creatures.
Then a scream pierced the air. “Help! Please!”
He turned. It sounded like someone he knew—like her.
But it was Naminé standing in front of the gate. In that instant, there was no doubt whose Nobody she was.
“Please, don’t let them hurt Roxas anymore!” She clung desperately to his back. “We Nobodies were never supposed to exist. But this…it’s horrible!”
He lowered Soul Eater and held her close.
A voice spoke from among the Dusks. “So, is Roxas inside?”
“Axel…,” Naminé murmured.
He looked up to find a red-haired man standing there. Probably a member of the organization. He lifted Soul Eater again. “Who are you?” he growled.
Axel only readied his chakrams in reply.
Naminé spoke up into the tension. “Axel… He’s Roxas’s friend. A Nobody. And a member of the organization… But he—”
Axel smirked and cut her off. “Let me tell you something, Naminé—you and I both want the same thing. Got it memorized?”
Naminé shook her head. “It’s the same…and it isn’t. But I d
on’t have time to explain.”
Listening to them, he glared hard at Axel.
“I’m sorry, Axel.” Just as Naminé spoke, a black portal opened up behind her and him. It swallowed them, and then they were gone.
“Hey—what gives?!” Axel ran to the empty space. Nothing was there but the gate locked tight, barring his way. He clicked his tongue in frustration and stared up at the looming mansion.
The man in the red cape spoke at a measured pace. “There is no knowledge that has the power to change your fate.”
“Even if it doesn’t…I still want to know. I have the right to know,” Roxas said, his voice hushed.
No matter what, he wanted to understand what his fate was…what was going to happen to him.
“A Nobody has no rights. Not even the right to exist.”
“But what is a Nobody?!” shouted Roxas, losing his cool, and then the man in the black cloak appeared between them from a dark portal.
“DiZ, we’re out of time. The Dusks are everywhere!”
As if following the sound of his cry, another dark portal materialized behind DiZ.
“Roxas…” It was Naminé who stepped out of it, now loud and urgent. “Nobodies like us are only half a person. You won’t disappear. You’ll be whole again!”
“I’m going to…disappear?” Roxas said.
DiZ turned and seized Naminé by the arm. “No more of this mutiny!”
“No, you won’t disappear! You’ll—” Naminé began to tell Roxas, but DiZ clamped a hand over her mouth and pulled her with him toward the portal.
“Hey, wait!” Roxas ran to them, or tried to—the man in the black cloak was in his way.
Struggling with all her might, Naminé wriggled away from DiZ’s suffocating hand and raised her voice. “Roxas! We’ll meet again! And then we can talk about everything. I may not know it’s you, and you may not know it’s me—but we will meet again! I promise—I know we will!”
“No! Wait!” Roxas tried to get to them, but before his eyes, Naminé vanished, dragged into the dark. “Naminé!”
The dark portal closed up, and the man in the black cloak disappeared, too.
“What…what just happened…?” Roxas mumbled, stunned. And then he yelled, “What’s going on?!”
Kingdom Hearts II Vol 1 Page 8